Sam Brownback on Crime

Republican Sr Senator (KS)

Spent nights in jail & homeless shelters to study causes

I think I may be the only person up here on this stage that’s spent a couple nights in jail, of my own volition, and I went in to look at the system. I spent a night in a prison in Kansas and I spent a night in a prison in Louisiana. I’ve stayed in
homeless shelters. And you hear about it very fast. And you get a feel for it about how people have become loners and went to crime, in some cases, and then caught and want to turn their lives around. So it spawned me to push the Second Chance Act.

Death penalty only for bin Laden-level criminals

Q: Do you want to see the death penalty continued?

A: We need a culture of life. I have difficulty with the death penalty. This is an individual, though, that has committed a heinous crime. I think we should limit the death penalty to cases only where
we cannot protect the society from the individual, such as when Osama bin Laden is caught. We need to be able to use it then. But we should use this very limited and only in that circumstance, in order to talk and to teach a culture of life in America.

Second Chance Act: faith-based & cuts recidivism in half

Q: Name one reform that you would endorse to assure young Blacks and Latinos that they will have equal justice in America’s courts.

A: I pushed the Second Chance Act through the Committee on the
Judiciary, and what it’s primarily focused on is to help people if they have been caught and they are in prison, that they not go back again. Because right now in the United States of
America, if you go to prison, the chances of you going back are two-thirds, 66 percent. That is a travesty that that number is that high. This bill in five years we cut it in half.
A lot of it is faith-based institutions. A lot of it is mentorship and work programs. So we can help people that are chains they can’t break themselves.

Opposes “hate crimes” legislation

Q: I was arrested, jailed, and was charged under Pennsylvania’s hate crimes law. I faced up to 47 years in prison plus a $90,000 fine for attempting to share the Gospel of Jesus Christ at a homosexual pride event with those who are trapped in bondage to
that lifestyle. If elected, can we count on you to veto any so-called “hate crimes” legislation?

HUCKABEE: Yes.

TANCREDO: Yes.

COX: Yes.

BROWNBACK: Yes.

PAUL: Yes.

HUNTER: Yes.

KEYES: Yes.

Source: 2007 GOP Values Voter Presidential Debate
Sep 17, 2007

Prosecute all illegal adult pornography

Q: The Bush Justice Department is reticent to prosecute any but the worst hardcore pornographers--and most often, only the smaller companies that produce such filth. Meanwhile, hardcore pornographers have found their way into major hotel chains.
Would your administration prosecute all illegal adult pornography, including so-called white-collar pornographers?

Voted NO on reinstating $1.15 billion funding for the COPS Program.

Amendment would increase funding for the COPS Program to $1.15 billion for FY 2008 to provide state and local law enforcement with critical resources. The funding is offset by an unallocated reduction to non-defense discretionary spending.

Proponents recommend voting YES because:

This amendment reinstates the COPS Program. I remind everyone, when the COPS Program was functioning, violent crime in America reduced 8.5% a year for 7 years in a row. Throughout the 1990s, we funded the COPS Program at roughly $1.2 billion, and it drove down crime. Now crime is rising again. The COPS Program in the crime bill worked, and the Government Accounting Office found a statistical link between the COPS grants and a reduction in crime.
The Brookings Institution reported the COPS Program is one of the most cost-effective programs we have ever had in this country. Local officials urgently need this support.

Opponents recommend voting NO because:

The COPS Program has some history. It was started by President Clinton. He asked for 100,000 police officers. He said that when we got to 100,000, the program would stop. We got to 110,000 police officers and the program continues on and on and on.

This program should have ended 5 years ago or 6 years ago, but it continues. It is similar to so many Federal programs that get constituencies that go on well past what their original purpose was. It may be well intentioned, but we cannot afford it and we shouldn't continue it. It was never thought it would be continued this long.

Voted NO on $1.15 billion per year to continue the COPS program.

Vote on an amendment to authorize $1.15 billion per year from 2000 through 2005 to continue and expand the Community Oriented Policing Services program. $600 million of the annual funding is marked for hiring additional officers [up to 50,000]

Voted NO on maintaining right of habeas corpus in Death Penalty Appeals.

Vote on an amendment to delete provisions in the bill that would make it harder for prisoners who have been given the death penalty in state courts to appeal the decision on constitutional grounds in the federal courts ['Habeas Corpus'].

Reduce recidivism by giving offenders a Second Chance.

Brownback co-sponsored reducing recidivism by giving offenders a Second Chance

Recidivism Reduction and Second Chance Act of 2007

Amends the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968 to expand provisions for adult and juvenile offender state and local reentry demonstration projects to provide expanded services to offenders and their families for reentry into society.

Directs the Attorney General to award grants for:

state and local reentry courts;

Comprehensive and Continuous Offender Reentry Task Forces;

pharmacological drug treatment services to incarcerated offenders;

technology career training for offenders;

mentoring services for reintegrating offenders into the community;

pharmacological drug treatment services to incarcerated offenders;

prison-based family treatment programs for incarcerated parents of minor children; and

a study of parole or post-incarceration supervision violations and revocations.